


Exhort

by StilesInTheGlade



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Because I needed it, Derek and Lydia need to be epic BFFs, F/M, M/M, They bond here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-18 14:54:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1432585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StilesInTheGlade/pseuds/StilesInTheGlade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Does it ever get better?”</p><p>“No.” Derek answered, because it didn’t. Time could try, but it would never fully heal the holes that the people you loved used to fill. “Almost, but not quite. Eventually you’ll find people who make it hurt less; they don’t take it away entirely, and they don’t replace the person you lost, but it’s enough to make you forget about it for a moment. You have to find them and hold on as tight as you can; because if there’s anything we can learn from all of this it’s that life is too short to let the people we love go.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exhort

**Author's Note:**

> Exhort: To incite with argument or advice; urge strongly

It felt like there was a scream building in Lydia’s chest and moving up her throat only to stop in its tracks at the back of her tongue, and every time she tried to force it out all she could manage was a broken whimper that winded her and left her feeling raw and vulnerable.

So she would swallow it and move on.

And that, in all honesty, is how she got close with Derek. Everyone else in the pack already had a close connection to the Redheaded Wonder (as Stiles very fondly referred to her), Scott and Isaac through Allison –when you date a girl’s best friend you end up pretty close to said girl – and Stiles through years and years of unrequited infatuation turned into friendship… and Derek, for his part, was more than a little devastated that she had to lose Allison to gain that connection with him.

But it was what it was.

After the Nogitsune, when Allison’s funeral was said and done and Scott deemed it appropriate to get out of bed and shower and Stiles was gone, spending the day with his best friend in the name of “The bonds of brohood, Derek!”, Lydia appeared at the door to the loft.

She looked… tired. None of her usual frill, dressed down in a pair of worn jeans and a Beacon Hills Lacrosse T-shirt Derek recognized as Stiles’. She wasn’t wearing any makeup and it was the first time Derek had been able to see exactly how deep the hollows under her eyes were. “Hey.” She said.

“Hi.” Derek said back, and then cleared his throat. “Stiles isn’t here.”

Lydia shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably before she tossed her hair back and summoned up the confidence she was known for, “I’m here to see you, actually.” And then she stepped into the loft, looking around with visible surprise at the new (to him, they got it at a thrift store) sofa, lamps, at the used feel of the entire place. “Stiles has been a good influence on you.”

Derek shook his head, shutting the heavy door with a thump. “Have you ever tried to tell him not to do something?”

“No.” Lydia’s lips twitched the way they did when she was trying not to smile, “But I’ve watched enough people try.” She perched on the couch, still not looking entirely comfortable. “I’m sorry, for just coming over but I…” She stopped, digging her teeth into her bottom lip. It was a moment before she could continue. “I just needed to be somewhere quiet with someone who understood.”

And then Derek got it. “Allison.”

“Yeah.” Lydia tilted her head back against the back of his sofa, “And Aidan. I didn’t love him, not like he wanted me to, but he was still… someone to me.”

“I understand.” Derek sat in the chair across from her, ankle over knee, hands in his lap.

“I know.” She rolled her head to look at him. “Kira tries, she really does, but she wasn’t… she hasn’t been through it all. She wasn’t there for Peter, and Jackson, and Gerard, and the Alpha pack. She didn’t know them. Isaac and Scott lost her just as much as I did, and Stiles…”

“Stiles blames himself too much.” Derek finished for her.

Lydia nodded. “So I thought… I’d come here.” She winced, “It sounds a little stupid when I say it out loud and I know we’ve never been that close but…”

“But I did try to kill you when I thought you were the Kanima.”

Lydia laughed then, though it sounded like it was punched out of her. “There was that.” She agreed. “I was going to say that I knew you would understand.”

They’d covered that already; Derek did understand, but Lydia looked like she hadn’t actually slept since the night Allison died, so really he wasn’t as annoyed at the repetition as he was worried.

They were quiet for a few minutes, the silence more comforting that it was oppressive, and then Lydia spoke again. “It was my fault. She was there to save me.”

And Derek couldn’t take it, not after years of being the big brother and the older cousin, he couldn’t stand Lydia alone and small on his sofa while he sat across from her. He stood, slowly like he would scare her if he moved to quickly, and crossed to the sofa in two quick strides. Lydia’s sharp, tired eyes softened as Derek lowered himself next to her and held out a hesitant arm; offering the comfort but not forcing it on her.

Lydia took the offer, curling into Derek’s side like she’d done it a million times.

“It was no one’s fault.” Lydia snorted into the soft cotton of Derek’s shirt. “It wasn’t.” He didn’t know what else to say about it; he was a little rusty at the whole… verbal comfort thing. So he just tightened his arm around her, his hand fitting over the delicate jut of Lydia’s shoulder.

It was so much easier with Stiles; he knew Stiles, every little twitch and expression, what every look that flashed through his eyes meant. And Stiles was never exactly shy about how he was feeling; Derek very rarely had to say a thing. Just offer a solid, warm presence and gather Stiles against him when he fell apart.

Lydia was more difficult; she was comfortable to sit in the silence, her head resting against his shoulder and her hair smelling faintly of raspberries and sandalwood. “Does it ever get better?”

Derek didn’t have to guess what she meant. “No.” He answered, because it didn’t. Time could try, but it would never fully heal the holes that the people you loved used to fill. “Almost, but not quite. Eventually you’ll find people who make it hurt less; they don’t take it away entirely, and they don’t replace the person you lost, but it’s enough to make you forget about it for a moment. You have to find them and hold on as tight as you can; because if there’s anything we can learn from all of this it’s that life is too short to let the people we love go.”

Lydia nodded, like it was the answer she expected, and pointedly didn’t comment that it was the most she’d ever heard Derek speak. It went quiet again until her breathing evened out and she fell asleep curled into Derek’s chest. At one point her hand had moved to clasp her fingers with his against her shoulder.

That was how Stiles found them. He blinked in surprise initially, but the smile that bloomed on his face was nothing but pleased. “Hey.” He toed his shoes off and folded himself into Derek’s other side, successfully making reading all but impossible as the hand not claimed by Lydia was trapped behind Stiles.

“Hi.” Derek tilted his head in for the obligatory but not at all unwelcomed ‘Hello’ kiss.

“When did she get here?” He nodded his head to Lydia, still sleeping peacefully against his shoulder.

“Couple of hours ago. She needed somewhere quiet.”

Stiles nodded. “I didn’t know you two were that close.”

“Neither did I, but I get it. I know what she’s feeling right now, and she needed someone who understood.”

Lydia let out an annoyed half-groan, sitting up and running a hand through her long hair, giving them both a look that conveyed both her amusement and irritation at being woken up. Derek, at least, had the decency to look sheepish about it. “Bathroom?”

Derek jabbed his thumb towards the stairs. “Up the stairs, first door on the left.”

As she flounced up the stairs Stiles turned to Derek. “Is she okay?”

“As okay as she could be.”

Stiles eyed the stairs, as if Lydia would suddenly appear and answer the question for herself.

Derek’s hand squeezed the nape of his neck. “She’ll be okay. She just… she needs some time. Broken hearts are just like a broken bone, they take time to heal, and even then they’re not as strong as they were before.”

“Who has a broken heart?”

Derek very seriously considered Stiles’ request to tie a bell around his uncle’s neck. “Peter.” He greeted instead of answering the question. It wasn’t his question to answer; he wasn’t sure where exactly Lydia stood on Peter, honestly.

“No, no, I’m pretty sure I’d know if it was me.” Peter stopped in the doorway, face scrunching as he concentrated on something. The room still smelt like raspberry and sandalwood. “When was Lydia here?”

“She’s still here.” And Lydia was coming back down the stairs with the muffled sound of bare feet on carpet, her shoes at the end of the couch where she’d been sitting. She was looking at Peter with the kind of single minded determination that Stiles and Derek had learned to associate with Lydia Martin: Badass Extraordinaire. “I stopped by to see Derek.”

She had stopped at the bottom of the stairs and Peter must have recognized the same broken thing in her eyes that Derek had, because his expression changed completely, from his resting sassface to mildly concerned. “Are you alright?” Derek hadn’t seen Peter honestly inquire to someone’s well being since the fire.

Lydia nodded, short and sharp, and then she seemed to decide on something because she started towards Peter, movements quick, like she needed to get to him before she changed her mind. Stiles knew that look. He stood, pulling Derek with him. “Come on.”

“We’re going to leave her alone with him?” Derek hissed.

“ _Yes_.” Stiles tugged on Derek’s wrist, trying to get him up the stairs. Derek let himself be tugged, since Stiles generally knew what he was talking about.

And then it was just Peter and Lydia.

Which was just how they liked it.

The second she reached him he was touching her, one hand on her shoulder, the other pushing through the long sweep of her hair. “Are you alright?” He asked again.

“I needed somewhere quiet.” She said in way of an actual answer, “And then Derek and I started talking …he gave me some advice.” At Peter’s raised eyebrows she continued, “He told me that I needed to find the people who made losing Allison and Aidan hurt less, and I needed to hold onto them.” She closed her eyes when Peter’s thumb swept across her cheekbone. “Can I hold onto you?”

“Only if you don’t let go.”

Upstairs, Stiles looked at Derek, watching his expression slip into something like astonishment, and pumped his fist in the air. He had called that one, and Kira owed him ten bucks.


End file.
